^ President Woodrow Wilson's 



D 619 
P2 




Address to Congress 



i9i7eb April 2, 1917 



Proclcimation of the President 
April 6, 1917 



Proclamation of the Mayor 
of the City of New York 

April 6, 1917 



Address of the President to 
his Fellow Countrymen 

April 16, 1917 



ComplimentB of the 

American Exchange National Bank 

NEW YORK CITY 



l5 



f ^>^„> 



ADDRESS 

OF THE 



PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES 



DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF 
THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 



APRIL 2, 19 1 7 



Address of 
President Woodrow Wilson 



Gentlemen of the Congress : 

I have called the Congress into extra- 
ordinary session because there are serious, 
very serious, choices of policy to be made, 
and made immediately, which it was neither 
right nor constitutionally permissible that 
I should assume the responsibility of mak- 
ing. 

On the third of February last I ofificially 
laid before you the extraordinary announce- 
ment of the Imperial German Government 
that on and after the first day of February 
it was its purpose to put aside all restraints 
of law or of humanity and use its sub- 
marines to sink every vessel that sought 
to approach either the ports of Great Britain 
and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe 
or any of the ports controlled by the ene- 
mies of Germany within the Mediterranean. 
That had seemed to be the object of the 
German submarine warfare earlier in the 
war, but since April of last year the Imperial 
Government had somewhat restrained the 
commanders of its undersea craft in con- 
formity with its promise then given to us 
that passeng-er boats should not be sunk 
and that due warning would be given to 
all other vessels which its submarines might 
seek to destroy when no resistance was of- 
fered or escape attempted, and care taken 
that their crews were given at least a fair 

— 3 — 



chance to save their lives in their open boats. 
The precautions taken were meagre and 
haphazard enough, as was proved in dis- 
tressing instance after instance in the 
progress of the cruel and unmanly business, 
but a certain degree of restraint was ob- 
served. The new policy has swept every 
restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, 
whatever their flag, their character, their 
cargo, their destination, their errand, have 
been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without 
warning and without thought of help or 
mercy for those on board, the vessels of 
friendly neutrals along with those of bellig- 
erents. Even hospital ships and ships carry- 
ing relief to the sorely bereaved and strick- 
en people of Belgium, though the latter 
were provided with safe conduct through 
the proscribed areas by the German Gov- 
ernment itself and were distinguished by 
unmistakable marks of identity, have been 
sunk with the same reckless lack of com- 
passion or of principle. 

I was for a little while unable to believe 
that such things would in fact be done by 
any government that had hitherto sub- 
scribed to the humane practices of civilized 
nations. International law had its origin in 
the attempt to set up some law which would 
be respected and observed upon the seas, 
where no nation had right of dominion and 
where lay the free highways of the world. 
By painful stage after stage has that law 
been built up, with meagre enough results, 
indeed, after all was accomplished that could 
be accomplished, but always with a clear 
view, at least, of what the heart and con- 
science of mankind demanded. This mini- 
mum of right the German Government has 
swept aside under the plea of retaliation 
and necessity and because it had no weapons 
which it could use at sea except these which 
it is impossible to employ as it is employing 
them without throwing to the winds all 
scruples of humanity or of respect for the 
understandings that were supposed to un- 
derlie the intercourse of the world. I am 
not now thinking of the loss of property in- 
volved, immense and serious as that is, but 
only of the wanton and wholesale destruc- 

— 4 — 



tion of the lives of non-combatants, men, 
women, and children, engaged in pursuits 
which have always, even in the darkest 
periods of modern history, been deemed in- 
nocent and legitimate. Property can be paid 
for; the lives of peaceful and innocent peo- 
ple cannot be. The present German sub- 
marine warfare against commerce is a war- 
fare against mankind. 

It is a war against all nations. Ameri- 
can ships have been sunk, American lives 
taken, in ways which it has stirred us very 
deeply to learn of, but the ships and people 
of other neutral and friendly nations have 
been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters 
in the same way. There has been no dis- 
crimination. The challenge is to all man- 
kind. Each nation must decide for itself 
how it will meet it. The choice we make 
for ourselves must be made with a modera- 
tion of counsel and a temperateness of 
judgment befitting our character and our 
motives as a nation. We must put excited 
feeling away. Our motive will not be re- 
venge or the victorious assertion of the phy- 
sical might of the nation, but only the vin- 
dication of right, of human right, of which 
we are only a single champion. 

When I addressed the Congress on the 
twenty-sixth of February last I thought that 
it would suffice to assert our neutral rights 
with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our 
people safe against unlawful violence. But 
armed neutrality, it now appears, is imprac- 
ticable. Because submarines are in effect 
outlaws when used as the German subma- 
rines have been used against merchant ship- 
ping, it is impossible to defend ships against 
their attacks as the law of nations has as- 
sumed that merchantmen would defend 
themselves against privateers or cruisers, 
visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. 
It is common prudence in such circum- 
stances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavour 
to destroy them before they have shown 
their own intention. They must be dealt 
with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The 
German Government denies the right of 
neutrals to use arms at all within the areas 

— 5 — 



of the sea which it has proscribed, even in 
the defense of rights which no modern pub- 
licist has ever before questioned their right 
to defend. The intimation is conveyed that 
the armed guards which we have placed on 
our merchant ships will be treated as be- 
yond the pale of law and subject to be dealt 
with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality 
is ineffectual enough at best; in such cir- 
cumstances and in the face of such preten- 
sions it is worse than ineffecual: it is likely 
only to produce what it was meant to pre- 
vent; it is practically certain to draw us 
into the war without either the rights or 
the effectiveness of belligerents. There is 
one choice we cannot make, we are incapa- 
ble of making: we will not choose the path 
of submission and suffer the most sacred 
rights of our nation and our people to be 
ignored or violated. The wrongs against 
which we now array ourselves are no com- 
mon wrongs; they cut to the very roots of 
human life. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and 
even tragical character of the step I am 
taking and of the grave responsibilities 
which it involves, but in unhesitating obedi- 
ence to what I deem my constitutional duty, 
I advise that the Congress declare the re- 
cent course of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to be in fact nothing less than war 
against the government and people of the 
United States; that it formally accept the 
status of belligerent which has thus been 
thrust upon it; and that it take immediate 
steps not only to put the country in a more 
thorough state of defense but also to exert 
all its power and employ all its resources to 
bring the Government of the German Em- 
pire to terms and end the war. 

What this will involve is clear. It will 
involve the utmost practicable cooperation 
in counsel and action with the governments 
now at war with Germany, and, as incident 
to that, the extension to those governments 
of the most liberal financial credits, in or- 
der that our resources may so far as pos- 
sible be added to theirs. It will involve the 
organization and mobilization of all the ma- 
terial resources of the country to supply the 

— 6 — 



materials of war and serve the incidental 
needs of the nation in the most abundant 
and yet the most economical and efficient 
way possible. It will involve the immediate 
full equipment of the navy in all respects 
but particularly in supplying it with the 
best means of dealing with the enemy's sub- 
marines. It will involve the immediate ad- 
dition to the armed forces of the United 
States already provided for by law in case 
of war at least five hundred thousand men, 
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon 
the principle of universal liability to service, 
and also the authorization of subsequent 
additional increments of equal force so soon 
as they may be needed and can be handled 
in training. It will involve also, of course, 
the granting of adequate credits to the Gov- 
ernment, sustained, I hope, so far as they 
can equitably be sustained by the present 
generation, by well conceived taxation. 

I say sustained so far as may be equitable 
by taxation because it seems to me that it 
would be most unwise to base the credits 
which will now be necessary entirely on 
money borrowed. It is our duty, I most 
respectfully urge, to protect our people so 
far as we may against the very serious hard- 
ships and evils which would be likely to 
arise out of the inflation which would be 
produced by vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which 
these things are to be accomplished we 
should keep constantly in mind the wisdom 
of interfering as little as possible in our own 
preparation and in the equipment of our 
own military forces with the duty, — for it 
will be a very practical duty, — of supplying 
the nations already at war with Germany 
with the materials which they can obtain 
only from us or by our assistance. They 
are in the field and we should help them in 
every way to be effective there. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, 
through the several executive departments 
of the Government, for the consideration of 
your committees, measures for the accom- 
plishment of the several objects I have men- 
tioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure 
to deal with them as having been framed 

— 7 — 



after very careful thought by the branch of 
the Government upon which the responsi- 
bility of conducting the war and safeguard- 
ing the nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply 
momentous things, let us be very clear, and 
make very clear to all the world what our 
motives and our objects are. My own 
thought has not been driven from its 
habitual and normal course by the unhappy 
events of the last two months, and I do not 
believe that the thought of the nation has 
been altered or clouded by them. I have 
exactly the same things in mind now that 
I had in mind when I addressed the Senate 
on the twenty-second of January last; the 
same that I had in mind when I addressed 
the Congress on the third of February and 
on the twenty-sixth of February. Our ob- 
ject now, as then, is to vindicate the prin- 
ciples of peace and justice in the life of the 
world as against selfish and autocratic pow- 
er and to set up amongst the really free and 
self-governed peoples of the world such a 
concert of purpose and of action as will 
henceforth ensure the observance of those 
principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible 
or desirable where the peace of the world 
is involved and the freedom of its peoples, 
and the menace to that peace and freedom 
lies in the existence of autocratic govern- 
ments backed by organized force which is 
controlled wholly by their will, not by the 
will of their people. We have seen the last 
of neutrality in such circumstances. We 
are at the beginning of an age in which it 
will be insisted that the same standards of 
conduct and of responsibility for wrong 
done shall be observed among nations and 
their governments that are observed among 
the individual citizens of civilized states. 

We have no quarrel with the German 
people. We have no feeling towards them 
but one of sympathy and friendship. It was 
not upon their impulse that their govern- 
ment acted in entering this war. It was 
not with their previous knowledge or ap- 
proval. It was a war determined upon as 
wars used to be determined upon in the old, 
unhappy days when peoples were nowhere 



consulted by their rulers and wars were pro- 
voked and waged in the interest of dynasties 
or of little groups of ambitious men who 
were accustomed to use their fellow men as 
pawns and tools. Self-governed nations do 
not fill their neighbour states with spies or 
set the course of intrigue to bring about 
some critical posture of affairs which will 
give them an opportunity to strike and 
make conquest. Such designs can be suc- 
cessfully worked out only under cover and 
where no one has the right to ask ques- 
tions. Cunningly contrived plans of decep- 
tion or aggression, carried, it may be, from 
generation to generation, can be worked out 
and kept from the light only within the 
privacy of courts or behind the carefully 
guarded confidences of a narrow and privi- 
leged class. They are happily impossible 
where public opinion commands and insists 
upon full information concerning all the 
nation's affairs. 

A steadfast concert for peace can never 
be maintained except by a partnership of 
democratic nations. No autocratic govern- 
ment could be trusted to keep faith within 
it or observe its covenants. It must be a 
league of honour, a partnership of opinion. 
Intrigue would eat its vitals away ; the plot- 
tings of inner circles who could plan what 
they would and render account to no one 
would be a corruption seated at its very 
heart. Only free peoples can hold their pur- 
pose and their honour steady to a common 
end and prefer the interests of mankind to 
any narrow interest of their own. 

Does not every American feel that assur- 
ance has been added to our hope for the 
future peace of the world by the wonderful 
and heartening things that have been hap- 
pening within the last few weeks in Rus- 
sia? Russia was known by those who knew 
it best to have been always in fact demo- 
cratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her 
thought, in all the intimate relationships of 
her people that spoke their natural instinct, 
their habitual attitude towards life. The 
autocracy that crowned the summit of her 
political structure, long as it had stood and 
terrible as was the reality of its power, was 

— 9 — 



not in fact Russian in origin, character, or 
purpose; and now it has been shaken oiif and 
the great, generous Russian people have 
been added in all their naive majesty and 
might to the forces that are fighting for 
freedom in the world, for justice, and for 
peace. Here is a fit partner for a League of 
Honour. 

One of the things that has served to con- 
vince us that the Prussian autocracy was 
not and could never be our friend is that 
from the very outset of the present war it 
has filled our unsuspecting communities and 
even our offices of government with spies 
and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot 
against our national unity of counsel, our 
peace within and without, our industries 
and our commerce. Indeed it is now evi- 
dent that its spies were here even before 
the war began ; and it is unhappily not a 
matter of conjecture but a fact proved in 
our courts of justice that the intrigues which 
have more than once come perilously near 
to disturbing the peace and dislocating the 
industries of the country have been carried 
on at the instigation, with the support, and 
even under the personal direction of official 
agents of the Imperial Government accred- 
ited to the Government of the United 
States. Even in checking these things and 
trying to extirpate them we have sought to 
put the most generous interpretation pos- 
sible upon them because we knew that their 
source lay, not in any hostile feeling or pur- 
pose of the German people towards us (who 
were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we 
ourselves were), but only in the selfish de- 
signs of a Government that did what it 
pleased and told its people nothing. But 
they have played their part in serving to 
convince us at last that that Government 
entertains no real friendship for us and 
means to act against our peace and security 
at its convenience. That it means to stir 
up enemies against us at our very doors the 
intercepted note to the German Minister at 
Mexico City is eloquent evidence. 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile 
purpose because we know that in such a 
government, following such methods, we 

— 10 — 



can never have a friend ; and that in the pres- 
ence of its organized power, always lying in 
wait to accomplish we know not what pur- 
pose, there can be no assured security for 
the democratic governments of the world. 
We are now about to accept gage of battle 
with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if 
necessary, spend the whole force of the 
nation to check and nullify its pretensions 
and its power. We are glad, now that we 
see the facts with no veil of false pretence 
about them, to fight thus for the ultimate 
peace of the world and for the liberation of 
its peoples, the German peoples included: 
for the rights of nations great and small 
and the privilege of men everywhere to 
choose their way of life and of obedience. 
The world must be made safe for democ- 
racy. Its peace must be planted upon the 
tested foundations of political liberty. We 
have no selfish ends to serve. We desire 
no conquest, no dominion. We seek no in- 
demnities for ourselves, no material com- 
pensation for the sacrifices we shall freely 
make. We are but one of the champions 
of the rights of mankind. We shall be satis- 
fied when those rights have been made as 
secure as the faith and the freedom of na- 
tions can make them. 

Just because we fight without rancour 
and without selfish object, seeking nothing 
for ourselves but what we shall wish to 
share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel 
confident, conduct our operations as bel- 
ligerents without passion and ourselves ob- 
serve with proud punctilio the principles of 
right and of fair play we profess to be fight- 
ing for. 

I have said nothing of the governments 
allied with the Imperial Government of Ger- 
many because they have not made war upon 
us or challenged us to defend our right and 
our honour. The Austro-Hungarian Gov- 
ernment has, indeed, avowed its unqualified 
endorsement and acceptance of the reckless 
and lawless submarine warfare adopted now 
without disguise by the Imperial German 
Government, and it has therefore not been 
possible for this Government to receive 
Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently 

— 11 — 



accredited to this Government by the Im- 
perial and Royal Government of Austria- 
Hungary; but that Government has not 
actually engaged in warfare against citizens 
of the United States on the seas, and I take 
the liberty, for the present at least, of post- 
poning a discussion of our relations with the 
authorities at Vienna. We enter this war 
only where we are clearly forced into it be- 
cause there are no other means of defending 
our rights. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct 
ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of 
right and fairness because we act without 
animus, not in enmity towards a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or dis- 
advantage upon them, but only in armed 
opposition to an irresponsible government 
which has thrown aside all considerations 
of humanity and of right and is running 
amuck. We are, let me say again, the sin- 
cere friends of the German people, and shall 
desire nothing so much as the early re- 
establishment of intimate relations of mu- 
tual advantage between us, — however hard 
it may be for them, for the time being, to 
believe that this is spoken from our hearts. 
We have borne with their present govern- 
ment through all these bitter months be- 
cause of that friendship, — exercising a 
patience and forbearance which would other- 
wise have been impossible. We shall, hap- 
pily, still have an opportunity to prove that 
friendship in our daily attitude and actions 
towards the millions of men and women of 
German birth and native sympathy who 
live amongst us and share our life, and we 
shall be proud to prove it towards all who 
are in fact loyal to their neighbours and to 
the Government in the hour of test. They 
are, most of them, as true and loyal Ameri- 
cans as if they had never known any other 
fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt 
to stand with us in rebuking and restraining 
the few who may be of a different mind and 
purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it 
will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern 
repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it 
will lift it only here and there and without 

— 12 — 



countenance except from a lawless and 
malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, 
Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have 
performed in thus addressing you. There 
are, it may be, many months of fiery trial 
and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful 
thing to lead this great peaceful people into 
war, into the most terrible and disastrous of 
all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in 
the balance. But the right is more precious 
than peace, and we shall fight for the things 
which we have always carried nearest our 
hearts, — for democracy, for the right of 
those who submit to authority to have a 
voice in their own governments, for the 
rights and liberties of small nations, for a 
universal dominion of right by such a con- 
cert of free peoples as shall bring peace and 
safety to all nations and make the world 
itself at last free. To such a task we can 
dedicate our lives and our fortunes, every- 
thing that we are and everything that we 
have, with the pride of those who know that 
the day has come when America is privi- 
leged to spend her blood and her might for 
the principles that gave her birth and hap- 
piness and the peace which she has treas- 
ured. God helping her, she can do no other. 



— 13 — 



By the President of the United 
States of America 

A Proclamation 

April 6, J9I7 



Proclamation of the President 



Whereas the Congress of the United 
States in the exercise of the constitutional 
authority vested in them have resolved, by 
joint resolution of the Senate and House of 
Representatives bearing date this day "That 
the state of war between the United States 
and the Imperial German Government which 
has been thrust upon the United States is 
hereby formally declared" ; 

Whereas it is provided by Section four 
thousand and sixty-seven of the Revised 
Statutes, as follows : 

Whenever there is declared a war be- 
tween the United States and any foreign 
nation or government, or any invasion 
or predatory incursion is perpetrated, 
attempted, or threatened against the ter- 
ritory of the United States, by any for- 
eign nation or government, and the 
President makes public proclamation 
of the event, all natives, citizens, deni- 
zens, or subjects of the hostile nation or 
government, being males of the age of 
fourteen years and upwards, who shall 
be within the United States, and not 
actually naturalized, shall be liable to 
be apprehended, restrained, secured, 
and removed, as alien enemies. The 
President is authorized, in any such 
event, by his proclamation thereof, 
or other public act, to direct the con- 
duct to be observed, on the part of the 
United States, toward the aliens who 
become so liable; the manner and de- 
gree of the restraint to which they shall 
be subject, and in what cases, and upon 
what security their residence shall be 
permitted, and to provide for the removal 

— 17 — 



of those who, not being permitted to 
reside within the United States, refuse 
or neglect to depart therefrom; and to 
establish any other regulations which 
are found necessary in the premises 
and for the public safety; 
Whereas, by Sections four thousand and 
sixty-eight, four thousand and sixty-nine, 
and four thousand and seventy, of the Re- 
vised Statutes, further provision is made 
relative to alien enemies; 

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, 
President of the United States of America, 
do hereby proclaim to all whom it may con- 
cern that a state of war exists between the 
United States and the Imperial German 
Government; and I do specially direct all 
officers, civil or military, of the United 
States that they exercise vigilance and zeal 
in the discharge of the duties incident to 
such a state of war; and I do, moreover, 
earnesty appeal to all American citizens 
that they, in loyal devotion to their country, 
dedicated from its foundation to the prin- 
ciples of liberty and justice, uphold the laws 
of the land, and give undivided and willing 
support to those measures which may be 
adopted by the constitutional authorities in 
prosecuting the war to a successful issue 
and in obtaining a secure and just peace; 

And, acting under and by virtue of the 
authority vested in me by the Constitution 
of the United States and the said sections 
of the Revised Statutes, I do hereby further 
proclaim and direct that the conduct to be 
observed on the part of the United States 
towards all natives, citizens, denizens, or 
subjects of Germany, being males of the age 
of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be 
within the United States and not actually 
naturalized, who for the purpose of this 
proclamation and under such sections of the 
Revised Statutes are termed alien enemies, 
shall be as follows : 

All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve 
the peace towards the United States and to 
refrain from crime against the public safety, 
and from violating the laws of the United 
States and of the States and Territories 
thereof, and to refrain from actual hostility 

— 18 — 



or giving information, aid or comfort to the 
enemies of the United States, and to comply 
strictly with the regulations which are here- 
by or which may be from time to time 
promulgated by the President; and so long 
as they shall conduct themselves in accord- 
ance with law, they shall be undisturbed in 
the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occu- 
pations and be accorded the consideration 
due to all peaceful and law abiding persons, 
except so far as restrictions may be neces- 
sary for their own protection and for the 
safety of the United States; and towards 
such alien enemies as conduct themselves 
in accordance with law, all citizens of the 
United States are enjoined to preserve the 
peace and to treat them with all such friend- 
liness as may be compatible with loyalty and 
allegiance to the United States. 

And all alien enemies who fail to conduct 
themselves as so enjoined, in addition to 
all other penalties prescribed by law, shall 
be liable to restraint, or to give security, or 
to remove and depart from the United States 
in the manner prescribed by Sections four 
thousand and sixty-nine and four thousand 
and seventy of the Revised Statutes, and 
as prescribed in the regulations duly pro- 
mulgated by the President; 

And pursuant to the authority vested in 
me, I hereby declare and establish the fol- 
lowing regulations, which I find necessary 
in the premises and for the public safety : 
1 — An alien enemy shall not have in his 
possession, at any time or place, any 
firearm, weapon or implement of war, or 
component part thereof, ammunition, 
maxim or other silencer, bomb or ex- 
plosive or material used in the manu- 
facture of explosives; 
2 — An alien enemy shall not have in his 
possession at any time or place, or use 
or operate any aircraft or wireless ap- 
paratus, or any form of signalling de- 
vice, or any form of cipher code, or any 
paper, document or book written or 
printed in cipher or in which there may 
be invisible writing. 
3 — All property found in the possession 
of an alien enemy in violation of the 

— 19 — 



foregoing regulations shall be subject 
to seizure by the United States ; 

4 — An alien enemy shall not approach or 
be found within one-half of a mile of 
any Federal or State fort, camp, arsenal, 
aircraft station. Government or naval 
vessel, navy yard, factory, or workshop 
for the manufacture of munitions of war 
or of any products for the use of the 
army or navy : 

5 — An alien enemy shall not write, print, 
or publish any attack or threats against 
the Government or Congress of the 
United States, or either branch thereof, 
or against the measures or policy of the 
United States, or against the person or 
property of any person in the military, 
naval, or civil service of the United 
States, or of the States or Territories, 
or of the District of Columbia, or of the 
municipal governments therein; 

6 — An alien enemy shall not commit or 
abet any hostile act against the United 
States, or give information, aid, or com- 
fort to its enemies ; 

7 — An alien enemy shall not reside in or 
continue to reside in, to remain in, or 
enter any locality which the President 
may from time to time designate by 
Executive Order as a prohibited area in 
which residence by an alien enemy shall 
be found by him to constitute a danger 
to the public peace and safety of the 
United States, except by permit from 
the President and except under such 
limitations or restrictions as the Presi- 
dent may prescribe ; 

8 — An alien enemy whom the President 
shall have reasonable cause to believe 
to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, 
or to be at large to the danger of the 
public peace or safety of the United 
States, or to have violated or to be about 
to violate any of these regulations, shall 
remove to any location designated by 
the President by Executive Order, and 
shall not remove therefrom without a 
permit, or shall depart from the United 
States if so required by the President; 

— 20 — 



9 — No alien enemy shall depart from the 
United States until he shall have re- 
ceived such permit as the President 
shall prescribe, or except under order 
of a court, judge, or justice, under Sec- 
tions 4069 and 4070 of the Revised 
Statutes; 

10 — No alien enemy shall land in or enter 
the United States, except under such 
restrictions and at such places as the 
President may prescribe ; 

11 — If necessary to prevent violations of 
these regulations, all alien enemies will 
be obliged to register; 

12 — An alien enemy whom there may be 
reasonable cause to believe to be aiding 
or about to aid the enemy, or who may 
be at large to the danger of the public 
peace or safety, or who violates or 
attempts to violate, or of whom there 
is reasonable ground to believe that he 
is about to violate, any regulation duly 
promulgated by the President, or any 
criminal law of the United States, or 
of the States or Territories thereof, will 
be subject to summary arrest by the 
United States Marshal, or his deputy, 
or such other officer as the President 
shall designate, and to confinement in 
such penitentiary, prison, jail, military 
camp, or other place of detention as 
may be directed by the President. 

This proclamation and the regulations 
herein contained shall extend and apply to 
all land and water, continental or insular, 
in any way within the jurisdiction of the 
United States. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set 
my hand and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

(Seal) Done at the City of Washington, this 
sixth day of April, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand nine hundred and 
seventeen, and of the independence of the 
United States the one hundred and forty- 
first. 

WOODROW WILSON 

By the President: 
ROBERT LANSING, 
Secretary of State. 

— 21 — 



Proclamation of the Mayor of 

the City of New York, 

April 6, J9I7 

To the Citizens of New York: 

Upon just grounds and after long and 
patient forbearance, the President and the 
Congress of the United States have declared 
that by the act of the autocratic government 
which rules in the Empire of Germany war 
exists between the two countries, and the 
free people of America are about entering 
into the great World Conflict. Millions of 
the people of this city were born in the 
countries engaged in this great war. No 
part of the earth is without its representa- 
tives here. 

I enjoin upon you all that you honor the 
Liberty which so many of you have sought 
in this land, and the free self-government of 
the American Democracy in which we all 
find our opportunity and individual freedom, 
by exercising kindly consideration, self-con- 
trol, and respect to each other and to all 
others who dwell within our limits, that 
you one and all aid in the preservation of 
order and in the exercise of calm and de- 
liberate judgment in this time of stress and 
tension. 

There will be some exceptional cases of 
malign influence and malicious purpose 
among you, and, as to them, I advise you 
all that full and timely preparation has been 
made adequate to the exigency which exists 
for the maintenance of order throughout the 
City of New York; and, for the warning of 
the ill-disposed, I quote the Statute of the 
United States which is applicable to all resi- 
dents enjoying the protection of our laws 
whether they be citizens or not: "Whoever 

— 22 — 



owing allegiance to the United States levies 
war against them or adheres to their ene- 
mies giving them aid or comfort within the 
United States or elsewhere is guilty of trea- 
son." The punishment prescribed by law 
for the crime of treason is death or at the 
discretion of the court imprisonment for 
not less than five years and a fine of not less 
than $10,000. All officers of the police have 
been especially instructed to give their 
prompt and efficacious attention to the en- 
forcement of this law. 

JOHN PURROY MITCHEL, 

Mayor. 



— 23 — 



Address of the President to his 

Fellow Countrymen 

April J6, 1917 



My Fellow-Countrymen : 

The entrance of our own beloved country 
into the grim and terrible war for democracy 
and human rights which has shaken the 
world creates so many problems of national 
life and action which call for immediate con- 
sideration and settlement that I hope you 
will permit me to address to you a few 
words of earnest counsel and appeal with 
regard to them. 

We are rapidly putting our navy upon an 
effective war footing and are about to create 
and equip a great army, but these are the 
simplest parts of the great task to which 
we have addressed ourselves. There is not 
a single selfish element, so far as I can see, 
in the cause we are fighting for. We are 
fighting for what we believe and wish to be 
the rights of mankind and for the future 
peace and security of the world. To do this 
great thing worthily and successfully we 
must devote ourselves to the service with- 
out regard to profit or material advantage 
and writh an energy and intelligence that 
will rise to the level of the enterprise itself. 
We must realize to the full how great the 
task is and how many things, how many 
kinds and elements of capacity and service 
and self-sacrifice, it involves. 

These, then, are the things we must do, 
and do well, besides fighting, — the things 
without which mere fighting would be fruit- 
less: 

We must supply abundant food for our- 
selves and for our armies and our seamen 

— 25 — 



not only, but also for a large part of the 
nations with whom we have now made com- 
mon cause, in whose support and by whose 
sides we shall be fighting; 

We must supply ships by the hundreds 
out of our shipyards to carry to the other 
side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, 
what will every day be needed there, and 
abundant materials out of our fields and 
our mines and our factories with which not 
only to clothe and equip our own forces on 
land and sea but also to clothe and support 
our people for whom the gallant fellows 
under arms can no longer work, to help 
clothe and equip the armies with which we 
are cooperating in Europe, and to keep the 
looms and manufactories there in raw ma- 
terial ; coal to keep the fires going in ships 
at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of 
factories across the sea; steel out of which 
to make arms and ammunition both here 
and there; rails for worn-out railways back 
of the fighting fronts; locomotives and roll- 
ing stock to take the place of those every 
day going to pieces; mules, horses, cattle 
for labor and for military service; every- 
thing with which the people of England 
and France and Italy and Russia have 
usually supplied themselves but cannot now 
afford the men, the materials, or the machin- 
ery to make. 

It is evident to every thinking man that 
our industries, on the farms, in the ship- 
yards, in the mines, in the factories, must be 
made more prolific and more efficient than 
ever and that they must be more econom- 
ically managed and better adapted to the 
particular requirements of our task than 
they have been; and what I want to say is 
that the men and the women who devote 
their thought and their energy to these 
things will be serving the country and con- 
ducting the fight for peace and freedom just 
as truly and just as effectively as the men 
on the battlefield or in the trenches. The 
industrial forces of the country, men and 
women alike, will be a great national, a great 
international, Service Army, — a notable and 
honored host engaged in the service of the 

— 26 — 



nation and the world, the efficient friends 
and saviors of free men everywhere. Thous- 
ands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of men 
otherwise liable to military service will of 
right and of necessity be excused from that 
service and assigned to the fundamental, 
sustaining work of the fields and factories 
and mines, and they will be as much part of 
the great patriotic forces of the nation as 
the men under fire. 

I take the liberty, therefore, of address- 
ing this word to the farmers of the country 
and to all who work on the farms: The 
supreme need of our own nation and of the 
nations with which we are cooperating is 
an abundance of supplies, and especially of 
food stuffs. The importance of an adequate 
food supply, especially for the present year, 
is superlative. Without abundant food, 
alike for the armies and the peoples now 
at war, the whole great enterprise upon 
which we have embarked will break down 
and fail. The world's food reserves are low. 
Not only during the present emergency but 
for some time after peace shall have come 
both our own people and a large proportion 
of the people of Europe must rely upon the 
harvests in America. Upon the farmers of 
this country, therefore, in large measure, 
rests the fate of the war and the fate of the 
nations. May the nation not count upon 
them to omit no step that will increase the 
production of their land or that will bring 
about the most effectual cooperation in the 
sale and distribution of their products? The 
time is short. It is of the most imperative 
importance that everything possible be done 
and done immediately to make sure of large 
harvests. I call upon young men and old 
alike and upon the able-bodied boys of the 
land to accept and act upon this duty — to 
turn in hosts to the farms and make certain 
that no pains and no labor is lacking in 
this great matter. 

I particularly appeal to the farmers of 
the South to plant abundant food stuffs as 
well as cotton. They can show their 

— 27 — 



patriotism in no better or more convincing 
way than by resisting the great temptation 
of the present price of cotton and helping, 
helping upon a great scale, to feed the nation 
and the peoples everywhere who are fight- 
ing for their liberties and for our own. The 
variety of their crops will be the visible 
measure of their comprehension of their 
national duty. 

The Government of the United States and 
the governments of the several States stand 
ready to cooperate. They will do every- 
thing possible to assist farmers in securing 
an adequate supply of seed, an adequate 
force of laborers when they are most needed, 
at harvest time, and the means of expediting 
shipments of fertilizers and farm machinery, 
as well as of the crops themselves when 
harvested. The course of trade shall be as 
unhampered as it is possible to make it and 
there shall be no unwarranted manipulation 
of the nation's food supply by those who 
handle it on its way to the consumer. This 
is our opportunity to demonstrate the effi- 
ciency of a great Democracy and we shall 
not fall short of it! 

This let me say to the middlemen of every 
sort, whether they are handling our food 
stuffs or our raw materials of manufacture 
or the products of our mills and factories: 
The eyes of the country will be especially 
upon you. This is your opportunity for 
signal service, efficient and disinterested. 
The country expects you, as it expects all 
others, to forego unusual profits, to organize 
and expedite shipments of supplies of every 
kind, but especially of food, with an eye to 
the service you are rendering and in the 
spirit of those who enlist in the ranks, for 
their people, not for themselves. I shall 
confidently expect you to deserve and win 
the confidence of people of every sort and 
station. 

To the men who run the railways of the 
country, whether they be managers or oper- 
ative employes, let me say that the railways 
are the arteries of the nation's life and that 
upon them rests the immense responsibility 
of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no 

— 2&- 



obstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or 
blackened power. To the mercliant let mc 
suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick 
service;" and to the shipbuilder the thought 
that the life of the war depends upon him. 
The food and the war supplies must be car- 
ried across the seas no matter how many 
ships are sent to the bottom. The places 
of those that go down must be supplied and 
supplied at once. To the miner let me say 
that he stands where the farmer does : the 
work of the world waits on him. If he 
slackens or fails, armies and statesmen are 
helpless. He also is enlisted in the great 
Service Army. The manufacturer does not 
need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks 
to him to speed and perfect every process ; 
and I want only to remind his employes that 
their service is absolutely indispensable 
and is counted on by every man who loves 
the country and its liberties. 

Let me suggest, also, that every one who 
creates or cultivates a garden helps, and 
helps greatly, to solve the problem of the 
feeding of the nations ; and that every house- 
wife who practices strict economy puts her- 
self in the ranks of those who serve the 
nation. This is the time for America to 
correct her unpardonable fault of wasteful- 
ness and extravagance. Let every man and 
every woman assume the duty of careful, 
provident use and expenditure as a public 
duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no 
one can now expect ever to be excused or 
forgiven for ignoring. 

In the hope that this statement of the 
needs of the nation and of the world in this 
hour of supreme crisis may stimulate those 
to whom it comes and remind all who need 
reminder of the solemn duties of a time 
such as the world has never seen before, 
I beg that all editors and publishers every- 
where will give as prominent publication 
and as wide circulation as possible to this 
appeal. I venture to suggest, also, to all 
advertising agencies that they would per- 
haps render a very substantial and timely 
service to the country if they would give it 
widespread repetition. And I hope that 

— 29 — 



clergymen will not think the theme of it an 
unworthy or inappropriate subject of com- 
ment and homily from their pulpits. 

The supreme test of the nation has come. 
We must all speak, act, and serve together!: 

WOODROW WILSON 



— 30- 



United States Government 
WAR LOAN 



We will in due course have the 
details of the loan which the Gov- 
ernment of the United States will 
in the near future ofifer for popular 
subscription to provide funds for 
the Army and Navy. 

All patriotic citizens will consider 
it a privilege to help make such a 
loan a huge success. They will at 
the same time obtain a security of 
the highest grade and free from all 
tax. 

We will place the facilities of this 
bank at the disposal of the Govern- 
ment, and to that end will be 
pleased to assist our clients or their 
friends by handling their subscrip- 
tions to such a loan, when issued, 
v/ithout charge to them. 



The 
American Exchange National Bank 

New York City 



LEWIS L. CLARKE 

President 



WALTER H. BENNETT THEODORE H. BANKS 

Vice-PreeidcDt Vice-President 

GEORGE C. HAIGH 

Vice-Preeident 

ARTHUR P. LEE 

Cashier 

A. K. de GUISCARD ELBERT A. BENNETT 

AbsI. Cashier Asst. Caehier 

HUGH S. McCLURE WALTER B. TALLMAN 

Aeet. Cashier Asst. Cashier 

ALEXANDER G. ARMSTRONG 

Aeet. Casbier 

ROY MURCHIE LOUIS S. TIEMANN 

Aeet. Caehier Aeet. Cneliier 



DIRECTORS 



WILLIAM M. BARRETT, GEORGE LEGG, 

Pres. Adams Express Co. New York. 

WALTER H. BENNETT. EDGAR J. NATHAN, 

Vice-President. Cardozo & Nathan. 

JOHN S. BROWNING. EDWARD C. PLATT. 

Browning. King & Co. Vice-President Mackay Cu.'e 

LEWIS L. CLARKE. JOSEPH A. SKINNER. 

President . Wm. Skinner & Sons. 

R. FULTON CUTTING, JAMES A. SMITH. 

New York. Galboun. Robbins & Co. 

WILLIAM P. DIXON. ELBRIDGE GERRY SNOW, 

Dixon & Holmes. Prea. Home Insurance Co. 

STEPHEN B. FLEMING. GLAUS A. SPRECKELS. 

Free. Internat'l Agri. Corp. Free. Federal Sugar Ref. Co. 

JOHN T. TERRY. 

New York. 



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